Life before the detention

Seyran Murtaza was born on November 27, 1983, in the Tashkent region to a Crimean Tatar family. In 1990, at the age of seven, he and his family returned to the Crimean Peninsula, where he began his studies at a secondary school in the Alushta district.

After completing the 9th grade, he entered the Simferopol Automotive Technical School, graduating in 2002 as a qualified auto mechanic. He subsequently worked in his specialty and in the construction sector, gaining practical experience that later defined his primary professional activity.

Persecution

Seyran Murtaza actively attended hearings in politically motivated cases, supported the families of political prisoners, and attended searches to stand by his fellow countrymen.

On February 27, 2017, he was detained near the house of Marlen Mustafayev during a search. At that time, Seyran Murtaza was sentenced to 5 days of administrative arrest. According to his wife, several months before his arrest, unknown individuals were noticed near their house, taking photographs and later following the family.

On March 27, 2019, Seyran was detained following mass searches in Simferopol and surrounding districts. On that day, Russian security forces conducted simultaneous searches at dozens of Crimean Tatar addresses, resulting in the detention of several activists, including Seyran Murtaza.

Behind the bars

Following his detention in March 2019, Seyran was placed in a pre-trial detention center, where he was held for a long time without visits from his relatives. He was charged in the so-called Crimean Muslims case, specifically for alleged participation in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which Russia considers terrorist.

In 2021, the trial began in the Russian Southern District Military so-called court. Due to the large number of defendants, the case was divided into several groups, within which the same materials were effectively reviewed repeatedly, and the same witnesses were interrogated.

As a result, Seyran was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment in a fabricated case. He was ordered to serve the first two years in prison and the remainder of the term in a maximum-security penal colony. After serving his sentence, he was given an additional year of restricted freedom, with further constraints, including a curfew and a ban on leaving his place of residence.